Your To-Do List May Be Stressing You Out. Here's How to Stop That

Your to-do list—the very thing you use to get on top of it all—may be to blame. Help is here! A few givens in life: Water is wet, the sky is blue, and if you are a living, breathing woman in 2016, you're dealing with some level of stress. According to an American Psychological Association (APA) report, 43 percent of women say they're more stressed out than they were five years earlier, and nearly 25 percent describe their stress as "extreme." Women under age 33 report the highest levels of agita of any generation, with those 33 to 46 close behind. You can probably guess the reasons behind the young-and-anxious phenomenon: In your twenties and thirties, you're struggling to establish your career, relationships, and finances—all grade-A stress boosters. But we also live in a culture that values busyness: "I'd say at least half of a woman's overall stress is directly tied to her to-do list, both the sheer number of things she has to accomplish and the actual list itself," says Nancy Molitor, Ph.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. One problem hiding in our lists: Call it the "ping-pong"

Your to-do list—the very thing you use to get on top of it all—may be to blame. Help is here!

A few givens in life: Water is wet, the sky is blue, and if you are a living, breathing woman in 2016, you're dealing with some level of stress. According to an American Psychological Association (APA) report, 43 percent of women say they're more stressed out than they were five years earlier, and nearly 25 percent describe their stress as "extreme." Women under age 33 report the highest levels of agita of any generation, with those 33 to 46 close behind.

You can probably guess the reasons behind the young-and-anxious phenomenon: In your twenties and thirties, you're struggling to establish your career, relationships, and finances—all grade-A stress boosters. But we also live in a culture that values busyness: "I'd say at least half of a woman's overall stress is directly tied to her to-do list, both the sheer number of things she has to accomplish and the actual list itself," says Nancy Molitor, Ph.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

One problem hiding in our lists: Call it the "ping-pong" effect. In a study at Cornell University, women were twice as likely as men to make more than 20 switches between different roles (boss, sister, girlfriend) and settings (the office, dry cleaner, dog park) a day. "Those switches are an enormous source of stress," says study author Benjamin Cornwell, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology. Say you leave a work meeting, then call your mom, and then immediately dash out to run an errand at the bank—that's three switches. Our body interprets each one as a disruption, Cornwell explains, which sets off a chain of stress hormones and other metabolic responses. "You're processing new stimuli and grinding your gears," he says. And his research shows the effect is cumulative: For every additional switch women have in their day, the likelihood of reporting severe stress increases by more than 7 percent.

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Have a lot of switches in one day? Do something physical to counteract the stress.

So, serious stuff. But there is a fix, and it's as simple as organizing your day in a way that minimizes those taxing switches. We asked four women to test our Slash Your List challenge (see below); all of them reported less stress, and the results were almost immediate: "I felt refreshed and invigorated," says Theresa Masse, 26, a theater house manager in Chicago. "I didn't know how to prioritize before; the plan helped me get rid of the noise in the back of my head telling me what I needed to be doing. My boyfriend even said I looked calmer!" What are you waiting for, stressball? Instructions are right here.

How to Slash Your List

"For many women, to-do lists are a big source of worry and guilt," says Molitor. Rethink yours and you'll reduce all the "switches" that research shows amp up your stress levels. Your four-step plan:

1. Write

In the morning over coffee, divide your to-dos into three lists:

• Today's priorities: Limit this to five things to focus on today. Some items can be basics ("buy toilet paper"), but you also want to include specific action steps toward your long-term goals (like "update my résumé"). "Some of those tasks—the ones that are hard to do so we put them off—bring us the most satisfaction," says Molitor.

• This week's to-dos: Jot down as many as you like.

• Would-be-nice-to-dos: These are any tasks that don't really have a deadline. "The point of this list is to off-load them from your brain so you're not thinking about buying bathroom hooks in the middle of the night," says Molitor.

*"I used to make these huge to-do lists," says tester Rebecca Reese, 30, of Seattle. "Focusing on just five key things helped me relax because I knew I'd gotten the important stuff done."*2. Now reduce

Before the day even starts, look at your "this week" and "nice-to-do" lists and cut as much as you can from them. "Get rid of anything extraneous," says Molitor, "like that book club that you don't love or anything that can be delegated to someone else—even if you know you could do it faster or better yourself!" The point is to make a conscious decision about what's worth your time. Says Molitor: "The rest of the stuff is just junk jobs."

3. Reorganize

Next, group tasks requiring the same mind frame together; this reduces mental ping-ponging. ("Women who 'switch' more than 20 times a day are twice as stressed as those who switch less," says Cornwell.) Some switches are inevitable—you never know when your gyno is going to call you back—but you want to get the number under 20 per day. Some tips to help:

• If you have errands or personal tasks to get done, do them all at once instead of sprinkling them throughout the day.

• At work, try to do one project at a time, not seven. It takes some discipline at first, but the focus will help you complete tasks faster.

• Set aside chunks of time to check email and social media rather than posting or replying every time your phone pings.

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• Leave work at work. If you must check emails at night, try to designate one specific time to do it.

"I'm a mom and business owner, and I hope to run a marathon—I switch a lot! Putting detail-oriented tasks together helped me focus, and I feel more in control of my day," says Shola Akintobi, 33, of Brooklyn.

4. Reprioritize

OK, you're into your day and getting stuff done. Time to tweak your "today" list:

• Once you check a task off this list, you can move something else onto it from the weekly list, but not before. You want to end the day with nothing left on this list.

• If there's a task you've been putting off, it's time to bump it up to this list! Procrastination that goes on too long, says Molitor, can add to your anxiety.

Done? Good. Cocktail time—or nap time! You've earned it.

"Targeting one task at a time helped me feel less all over the place," says Abbe Wright, 29, of Brooklyn. "I wasn't as exhausted at the end of the day, and felt like I'd accomplished more."